I've always been a fan of the minimalist setup. So I think that after much consideration and the fact that some laptops are as powerful or more than my desktop, and after seeing this video, and the fact that I do currently switch between portable and desktop for separate uses, I have decided to do THIS:

I plan to build my existing desk with a back wall to mount the monitor flush on an arm.

I already ordered a wall mount from Amazon and will be visiting IKEA tomorrow or Friday to get the other piece of desktop I need to fashion the backing and pick up some drawers for the existing desk bottom.

My options for laptop right now are:

MSI P65 with the i7 8750 and 1070 Max-Q
Razer Blade 15 with the i7 and 2060 or 2070 (available January 29). <---- decided on this one with the 2070 in Mercury White.

To make up for the lost HDD capacity I plan to get a 4TB external drive to use when docked for my game library.
Gaming wise, these are on par with my desktop soooo no point in me keeping two machines anymore (my other is the Surface Pro 3).

I dont plan on grabbing an eGPU enclosure right away but will likely do so this year as either way I plan on grabbing the a 2080/ti or Vega II for it (to put in my desktop for now until the laptop is here DDD).

The TB3 hub they use in that video is pretty decent so I will probably grab that as well. Also going to "try" to embed the wireless charger in the desk. Should be interesting.

Hopefully this all goes well. Setting up the garage for my "desk building" tonight so tomorrow I can get to that portion of it before the mount gets here Friday.

The goal of this build is to create a minimalist designed space with in desk wireless charging and clean lines with accent lighting in the right places. All cables hidden as well as possible.

My monitor arm should be arriving today. I completed the ALEX from IKEA last night so photos of that coming soon.

Tonight's goals:
Purchase self tapping screws and wood support beams/blocks from home depot. I will need these to reinforce the back wall of the desk to be able to support the added weight of the monitor and mount. Possibly will mount speakers to this as well, will have to see once I measure for space.
Disassemble existing desk.
Complete drilling of holes for wireless charger.
Complete desk back attachment to new larger desk top and mount legs on left side. Right side to be supported by ALEX drawers.
Mount monitor and arm, drill holes behind monitor for cable management.

So I started by taking everything apart, in the photo here you can see the ALEX I completed last night:

I then cleaned all surfaces:

I added the two legs from my existing desk to the new larger surface on the left. Here you can see the placement of the first support 2x4 I used to help mount the backing:

These are the screws I sued. Since the surface of the IKEA particle boards is ~1" thick and I used a 2x4, the 3 inch screws go about all the way through without piercing the surface of the desk. This provides as much support as possible.

I placed 4 screws in the bottom of each block to attach them to the desk surface.

I used a round drill bit from IKEA to drill a hole for the monitor cables to pass through. Both the bottom and desk backing are different size LINNMON from IKEA:

I dont trust the particle board to hold up the monitor so I reinforced them by using extra pieces of two by four to drill through on the back.

I then put 5 screws in an X parttern on the back to hold the desk top and backing together.

Monitor setup and mounted:

I drilled another hole in the desk top under my mouse mat to route the cables for my keyboard and mouse.

Once I had everything setup I mounted my power strip and amp to the back of the desk. All cables are hidden in this way.

The amp controls are accessible from the top of the desk now.

I placed a 4 port USB hub on the right side of the desk backing for easy access for USB drives.

And here we are for now

The laptop is available Tuesday so my next steps are to order the TB3 hub, get some RGB lighting behind the monitor and get the desk ready for the built in wireless charger. More to come

So IKEA has this but not sure if I want the visible charger on the desktop or if I want it to just charge through top layer and maybe glue it inside the desk. I have a Pixel 3 so I may see about... taking apart the pixel stand and somehow working that in. More info is required first though.

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